Ah… microwave cookery, reheated leftovers, lifeless baked spuds and explosive bowls of boiled over porridge. There’s something distinctly NASA-like about the silver box that Jennifer Lawrence memorably referred to as “the science oven” in American Hustle, just before nuking her trailer-park kitchen.
So when I was invited to a Panasonic combi microwave demo, led by Irish chef Rachel Allen, I arrived curious, sceptical but open-minded.
· Originally published 2015, updated 2026 ·
My mother’s 1980s microwave skills had been limited to rubbery scrambled eggs and a limp courgette pasta dish. Could cooking with a combi microwave at a demo produce food you’d proudly serve to guests? And not just one dish, but an entire feast?
As it happens: yes – enthusiastically so. Ten years after I started using this machine, having raved about it for a decade (air fryers are not my friend!), my mic-drop comment on combi microwaves is this: if I had space, I’d use two of them side by side.
Why I’m still a fan of combi microwaves
Even today, in an era fixated on air fryers, combi microwaves grant speed and precision, in a way few appliances – even a traditional oven – can.
Used properly, a combi microwave provides the fast, healthy crisp you get from air fryers, but with a gentler control – the Panasonic slimline combi model has high, medium, low and simmer functions to use in combination with convention oven temperatures. You can see this put to effect with my lemon chicken supreme, cooked in my Panasonic combi microwave.
So let’s look back at Panasonic’s highly informative demonstration with Rachel, back in 2015.
The setting: Cactus Kitchens Cookery School, Clapham
Our evening class took place at the airy Cactus Kitchens in Clapham, south London – home to studios for the BBC’s Saturday Kitchen. It also runs as a cookery school run in partnership with BBC Masterchef judge Michel Roux so expectations were high even before a single machine had beeped.
Our workstations were each laid out with ingredients and naturally, a Panasonic slimline combi microwave each.
The gadget: Panasonic combi microwave oven
Drumroll for our star tool of the evening, Panasonic’s slimline combination microwave oven. Although I’d used microwaves for years, I’d never got to grips with the combination cooking function or understood exactly what it was.
A combi microwave combines:
- Microwave power
- Convection oven heat
- Grill function
This means you can:
- Cook food quickly and brown it properly
- Part-microwave, part bake for improved texture
- Achieve crisp skins on vegetables, meat and fish, with better caramelisation and colour – things traditional microwaves famously cannot do.
In brief, combi microwaves are designed for home cooks to make meals quickly without sacrificing proper cooking results and presentation.
The teacher: Rachel Allen, Ballymaloe School chef
Our cookery teacher at the demo was none other than Ballymaloe Cookery School alumna and author Rachel Allen.
Rachel led the class with warm confidence, demonstrating techniques and then visiting each of us at work stations for a chat.
Somewhere in between discussing timings and textures, Rachel taught me how to crush garlic with the blade of a large knife and it was so effective I’m sure I warded off vampires for 24 hours afterwards.
A quick word on the dulce de leche brownies
Rachel demonstrated her dulce de leche brownies during the class – rich indulgent chocolatey delights. I’ve shared the full recipe separately, showing my version made at home which you’ll find here:
But this evening wasn’t about one hero bake, it was about seeing a broad range of what a combi microwave could do.
What we cooked in the Panasonic combi microwave (and why it worked)
Focaccia for antipasti bruschetta
Focaccia dough was mixed in Panasonic’s bread maker, then finished in the combi microwave. The result was light fluffy bread with an impressive golden crust. Here is the focaccia sliced and loaded with antipasti-style toppings.
This was my first “oh!” moment of the evening – normally bread in a microwave is a floppy mess.
Jacket potatoes with smoked salmon
If there’s one dish you’d never trust a microwave with, it’s jacket potatoes. However these golden spuds were cooked in the combi microwave and came out with:
- Crispy, well seasoned skins
- Soft, floury potato texture
- No soggy pallid skins in sight
Stuffed with sour cream, chives, and smoked salmon, these jacket potatoes had been upgraded from student’s five-minute desperation dinner to genuinely dinner party-worthy dish. I’d go as far to say they were some of the best jacket potatoes I’ve ever eaten.
I’d never have believed these potatoes had been baked in a microwave if I’d not known.
Roast beef joint with salsa verde (yes, really)
And the piece de resistance. A joint of beef rubbed simply with olive oil, salt and pepper was cooked on the Panasonic combi microwave “beef” setting for forty minutes. When the microwave beeped at the end of the countdown, the smell alone signalled a rich, savoury, roast-like result.
Sliced into strips, the beef was:
- Perfectly medium-rare
- Juicy texture throughout
- Finished with a crisp, brown crust
It was as impressive as any I’d seen come out of a traditional oven. My grandma’s head would spin. Sunday roasts will never be the same again.
Paired with the tangy salsa verde, the roast beef was the dish that fully converted the room to the merits of combi microwave cooking.
Final thoughts: rethinking the microwave
By the end of the demo, it was genuinely hard to believe that everything on the table had been made partly with a microwave. The combination function allowing you to part bake and part microwave made cooking feel flexible rather than rushed and compromised.
It wasn’t about shortcuts for the sake of being fast, it was using microwave technology in a smarter way. I couldn’t wait to try it out at home.
Ten years on, I still love my Panasonic combi microwave – it remains one of the most used pieces of equipment in my kitchen, more so than my air fryer.
For my own focaccia recipe visit How to Make Focaccia with a Stand Mixer.
Have you ever cooked with a combi microwave oven?
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